01 June 1402 at 09:36
The results of recent surveys indicate that Huawei’s HarmonyOS operating system currently has eight percent of the Chinese market and is the third most popular operating system in the world.
The smartphone market is completely dominated by two operating systems, Android and iOS, and despite the fact that other operating systems such as Tizen and KaiOS have tried to capture a share of the market in recent years, they have never been able to have much impact on the market.
However, it seems that a new competitor for these two popular operating systems has emerged and is gradually increasing its dominance in the market.
In 2019, Huawei officially unveiled the HarmonyOS operating system and since then it has been continuously using it in its various devices.
According to new reports, the share of this operating system in the mobile phone market in China has recently reached eight percent, making it the third largest operating system in the world.
How is Huawei’s Harmony OS compared to Android and iOS?
The revenue of the mobile phone industry in the fourth quarter of 2022 faced a 14% decrease compared to the previous year.
In the meantime, iOS has performed better by registering a 12% drop compared to the same time period last year, and Android is in the next position with a 16% decrease.
However, reports indicate that the share of HarmonyOS has been increasing since last year; So that now two percent of all mobile phones in the world and eight percent of Chinese phones are equipped with this operating system.
Analysts believe that China is still the largest market for Android phones in the world and the growth trend of this operating system has continued in 2023. However, iOS still performed well in China, and the share of Huawei’s operating system remained stable compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
Of course, the Harmony operating system has no presence in the mobile phone market in America, and the mobile market of this country is governed only by Android and iOS.
On the other hand, the share of iOS in India is gradually increasing; So that contrary to the decreasing trend of Android in acquiring the market share, the trend towards iPhone has increased. Of course, the difference between these two operating systems is still very large and Android owns almost 94% of the Indian market.
HarmonyOS; A new and emerging power from Huawei
HarmonyOS is an open source operating system launched by Huawei in 2019 to compete with iOS and Android.
However, the widespread trend towards this operating system was formed when the United States imposed severe sanctions on Huawei and denied the company permission to use Android and American software services.
Features of the HarmonyOS operating system
The HarmonyOS operating system is designed to be used on various devices, including phones, tablets, smart watches, smart TVs, and other devices connected to the Internet of Things.
This operating system is designed based on a microkernel architecture, which is more stable and comprehensive than examples based on integrated kernels. The microkernel design also improves the security of this operating system and reduces the risk of crashes and poor performance.
One of the key advantages of Huawei’s Harmony OS is its extensive architecture, which makes devices equipped with this operating system compatible with each other without any problems.
In other words, Harmony OS users can share their information and resources between different devices equipped with this operating system without worrying about issues such as device incompatibility or incompatibility.
In addition, another advantage of Huawei’s new operating system is its support for multiple programming languages such as C, C++, Java, JavaScript, and Kotlin.
This facilitates the development of applications for this platform and provides a wide range of applications to its users.
Challenges facing Huawei’s Harmony OS
One of the biggest problems that HarmonyOS is dealing with is its very limited presence in markets outside of China.
Currently, Huawei has released this operating system only in China, which makes its user base more limited compared to Android and iOS.
On the other hand, the limited presence of this operating system in other parts of the world will also make developers show less desire to make applications for this operating system.
The combination of these events makes it harder for Huawei’s operating system to compete with iOS and Android.
Another problem facing Huawei’s new operating system is its excessive dependence on Android.
Although HarmonyOS is generally considered a new operating system, many parts of it depend on Android’s open source code.
This dependency is to the extent that many people claim that HarmonyOS is basically based on Android; Although this claim has not been proven yet.
In this context, Huawei has repeatedly emphasized that Harmony OS is a completely new operating system.
The growth of the HarmonyOS operating system
Despite all the aforementioned challenges, Harmony OS is growing at a staggering rate in China.
According to the latest reports of the TechHQ statistical institute, this operating system now has the highest growth rate among all operating systems in the world.
Currently, the number of users of this operating system is estimated to be around four hundred million people. However, Huawei has promised to release this operating system on more devices, both phones and tablets, in the future.
In this regard, the Chinese government’s support for domestic goods and services has also been a powerful driver for the growth of Huawei’s Harmony OS, which has greatly increased the trend towards it.
It is not bad to know that in 2019, the Chinese government announced to all government institutions and public companies that they must replace their personal computers that use foreign hardware and software with domestic ones within the next three years.
This event has become a turning point for Huawei’s new operating system and has given it a lot of popularity.
Conclusion; What will be the future of Harmony OS?
It’s no secret that Huawei has worked hard to make HarmonyOS a worthy competitor to Android and iOS.
Attractive features such as extensive architecture, support for various programming languages, and microkernel design make Huawei’s new operating system an ideal choice for mobile phones, tablets, smart watches, and other devices.
At the same time, it does not seem that we will see the release of Huawei phones in markets other than China, at least in the near future. Therefore, it cannot be expected that the Harmony OS operating system can have a wide presence in the world markets.
Of course, this company offers its products in markets outside of China from time to time. However, international Huawei phones are not equipped with HarmonyOS and instead use EMUI.
In any case, Huawei’s effort to upgrade its operating system promises a bright future for it, and it can bring itself closer to Android and iOS even in the coming years with its new features and capabilities.
